Well, I suppose it had to happen with the car on 96k miles.

Up to now, the only suspension work I have had to do was on the rear to replace the lower wishbones. That was at a rather low mileage, but par for the course, I believe. Work on the front suspension has so far only been to replace the lower shock bushes, (and the rears), as these do not last very long at all !! (Mr Ford, please make your engineers understand that putting the full weight of the car onto four small bushes is asking for trouble !!!)

ON 2nd August driving the 600 miles to Germany I became aware of a noise from the front. In Germany on autobahns I started to get worried so went to a local car dealer who pointed me to the Jaguar main agent in Mainz. As we were staying in Bacharach on the Rhine, we drove over there, to a dealership called Fuhrmeister. This place was clearly going places, as more premises were under construction, and the whole place was immaculately kept. Although I speak some German, (3 years of lessons are finally starting to sink in !), I was a bit unsure of describing the problem in German, but one of the receptionists spoke English so I explained the problem. After a couple of minutes a gentleman in the Jaguar corporate uniform came out, a Mr Mike Stumpf, the Service Manager, and he then took the car on a test drive with me, and then took the car into the workshop where it was rapidly inspected on the ramp. I had pointed out that new brake discs had been fitted in July, (not Jaguar ones !). After the inspection, Mike Stumpf told me the car was perfectly safe, but that I should ask for the new discs to be checked out, and that thenoise could be uneven tyre wear. All of this took about 3/4 hour so at the end I asked what I owed them and was told there was no charge. I asked for Mike's business card because I considered the service I had receive to be excellent. If all Jaguar dealer were like this one, their problems would be over.

So the rest of the fortnight we were able to dash along the autobahns without worries, although the noise persisted.

Once back home from holiday, I took the car to XJK who service the car for a more lengthy examination. The prognosis was the trunnion bushes on the "banana arms" of the front lower wishbones were starting to fail. When this happens, the wear allows the front wheels to drive in a splayed-out position, thus wearing out the inner shoulders of the tread which had started to happen on my car. Fortunately, I had caught the problem early enough to not need new tyres, but new trunnion bushes are essential, so they will be replaced next week. I shall get the rest of the suspension checked-out too.

These front bushes are "Hydrabushes" designed to improve refinement, and have a centre filled with fluid. The rubber fill connecting inner to outer steel rings has two voids. On my car the rubbers are starting to tear away from the outer steel ring. It is not unknown for the outer to completely come away from the fill rubber whereupon the bush can move a large amount. In my case it took a steel bar to force the movement.

Anyways, apart from this issue, the car behaved itself and we did 2840 miles in two weeks. At 12 years old, I suppose some repair work is inevitable and will become more frequent as the miles build up.

PS
I wrote a letter to Jaguar Cars in Coventry when I returned from holiday, congratulating them on their dealership in Mainz, and received a personally signed letter from the CEO Ralf Speth himself. Clearly Jaguar management at the highest level are well-focussed on customer input regarding their cars and service.

 

I recall having this same problem on my 05 XJR right front (passenger side here) at about 45,000 miles. I could even see the fluid leek from the bushing. At 96k miles I recon you did well.

 

Actually there are no leaks, it is the rubber fill coming away from the steel outer ring that secures the bush to the arm.

 

This front bushing?


I believe these are just two types of rubber, not hydraulic type. The only hydro bushings should be the front lower inner and the rear lower inner (the large black bushings). I just replaced mine because of a brake shudder (reduced the symptom, but did not solve the problem completely).

I wonder if Jag is trying to improve their dealer experience overall. My only local dealer was horrible a few years back, when my car was under warranty. Since then they've moved, restaffed, and I recently had a fantastic experience. Received a survey afterward and told them how much better I thought it was as well.

 

Nice photo, you can see the voids in the rubber filling between inner and outer. Are those the front curved arms ? I think the 'hydra' filling lies inside the white plastic moulding.

According to my technical notes, only the lower front bushes are hydrobush, the rears just use rubber as the intermediary medium.

Anyways, bad news is the noise is gone, but I still have vibration under braking from speed (60-70 mph) so next week the shop are going to put another set of discs on. I hope this cures the problem.

Apart from this, the car is running well. (knock on wood !!)

 

Those are the front curved arms. As far as I can tell from the new bushings I installed and the old ones, the white rubber is just a different type of rubber than the black (softer). The hydro bushings, compared with those I've seen on other vehicles, are on the inside of the straight lower control arm on the front.

Either way, glad your car is fixed and riding quietly. I also have had issues with my new rotors and pads. They were great initially, but after several months they developed a pulsation. After eliminating all other possibilities, it appears the pads have left depots on the rotors and that is the vibration I feel. Going to have the new rotors skimmed and replace the pads with something else.

 

Hi guys,

Are these bushings difficult to replace? Is it something an average home mechanic can do or would you recommend having a shop do it? Lastly, do you have a rough idea what the parts cost?

Thanks

 

UK price is about £30 per bush, but these are pressed into a forged aluminium arm, so you need an accurate mandrel to press them out without damaging the arm. It also helps to pour a kettle of boiling water over the thing just before you start pressing, so the aluminium gripping the bush expands a bit. Bashing with a hammer is not recommended.

The shop I use allows one hour per side.

 

Thanks for the help Fraser.

Mine do have some play in them, but I'm not sure how much is acceptable.

 

From what I can determine, these trunnion bushes start to fail, but it takes some time before the symptoms start to get noticed. My fronts were demonstrably on the way out, the technician showed me with the car up in the air. The ones on the straight arms were not checked. The fronts can get so bad that the push hits the nearby subframe when braking and this does cause a clonk. Mine were nowhere near that. My car has always run straight and true, it was only when the technician saw the inner wear on the tyres that the alarm bells rang.

I still have a whirring noise from the front, and I think this indicates a bearing is on the way out, but play is very small, so it passed its recent roadworthiness test, (our UK "MOT" test).

Basically if you hear something, it is not going to go away on its own, so its always worth a check. In my case, I either did nothing and wore the tyres out, or replaced the bushes. Whatever, it is always money that is needed !!